Dallas City News

The Dallas Cowboys had one final chance to show off the full depth of their roster on Saturday from AT&T Stadium, one that took a hit at the very top of the cornerback depth chart before the game with the news that DaRon Bland will miss six to eight weeks with a foot stress fracture. This made the Cowboys secondary a key position group to watch against the Chargers, who came into their final preseason game without an offensive touchdown in their first eight quarters. The Dallas defense threw some different looks at Los Angeles QB Easton Stick, but did allow two explosive plays for scores in the first half to fall behind 17-3. A second half comeback attempt from the Cowboys came down to the final play of the game, where Trey Lance’s last second throw down the seam for Cam Johnson sailed out of the rookie WRs reach and became Lance’s fifth interception of the game.

With the preseason now completed, and the Cowboys keeping their blue chip players on ice for the entirety of it, this performance against the Chargers will only add to the need Dallas has for their starters to find chemistry quickly with the regular season now in the windshield view. The five turnovers on offense are hard to look past when evaluating these final four quarters the Cowboys will use to make their roster cuts down to 53 players by Tuesday’s deadline, but this is exactly what the staff will do with tough decisions to be made at multiple position groups.

Not all of the tape against the Chargers was negative, so let’s get into some of the good and bad from the last four “meaningless” quarters of Cowboys football we will all watch for quite a long time.

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• Rookie Ryan Flournoy’s second touchdown on a fade route in as many games was the highlight of the night for a sixth-round pick fighting to not just make the roster but have a defined role in the passing offense. Flournoy has not only stood out as a big red zone target with soft hands, but is a willing blocker on the perimeter too.

The Cowboys continued to put a clear emphasis on working their interior run game on Saturday, where players like Deuce Vaughn and Royce Freeman have done everything they can to battle for tough yards and keep the offense on schedule. Projected “starters” like Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott in the Cowboys stable of backs should have a chance to get even more out of these runs depending on how this young offensive line gels together early in the season, but don’t count on Malik Davis as a tough runner as well. Davis’ longest run of the day came on the Cowboys’ opening drive for a field goal, and it was sprung by a down block from Flournoy helping Davis burst to the second level.

• It is no secret that the Cowboys’ Achilles heel on defense last season was allowing too many yards on the ground. The very early returns on Mike Zimmer’s defense coming into this game was that Dallas appeared as a more fundamentally sound and stouter defense, but they did allow both a 70-yard touchdown run and 78-yard receiving score in the first half. The rushing touchdown from Chargers receiver Derius Davis came on their first play of the game, beating the angles of both Julius Wood and Markquese Bell down the field to take his only touch of the game the distance.

Villiami Fehoko was the only Cowboys defender at the point of attack that had a chance against Davis in the backfield, but he got caught inside and could not recover to even force Davis back towards the middle of the defense. For as much as the savvy veteran coordinator Zimmer has been praised for picking up the pieces of Dan Quinn’s defense and immediately putting players in position to succeed, this game tested the limits of players like Fehoko, who was projected to have a potentially difficult time transitioning to a defensive end role instead of playing as a smaller tackle. Unfortunately for the second-year draft pick, these struggles have been evident for Fehoko, and he has been released.

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

Fehoko was hardly the only player caught out of position throughout the game, as the Chargers’ longest passing play came over the top of newest CB Andrew Booth to Simi Fehoko. Booth has not looked comfortable turning his back to a play and running with receivers downfield, but should have had help from Markquese Bell over the top of this throw. Instead, a player like Bell who spent most of last season playing on the second level as a hybrid linebacker, came down on an underneath route that was already covered and allowed the deep shot to be completed over the top of the entire Dallas defense.

The Cowboys also experimented with playing heavier boxes in the front seven at times against the Chargers, with players like LB Buddy Johnson getting out into the flat to knock down a third down pass attempt that forced a field goal in the second quarter. With so many new faces that did not play at all in the preseason, and the sudden loss of DaRon Bland to deal with, it is going to be very interesting to see just how strong the Cowboys defense can be coming out of the gate – and how good they will need to be to buy time for an offense that also rested nearly all starters over three exhibition games.

• Trey Lance’s best plays this preseason all came with his legs, saving the best for last with a 46-yard scamper for a touchdown to draw within one score in the third quarter. Tackle Josh Ball and undrafted tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford made the key blocks on the play to spring Lance down the sideline. Both players did all they could this preseason to show they can have a role as depth players, with Ball having a much more clear path to making the roster as a depth option along the offensive line compared to Spann-Ford in a crowded TE room.

From a play-calling perspective, this game felt like the closest thing to a regular season script from Mike McCarthy before dialing up plays for Dak Prescott in two weeks. The core concepts of his offense were on full display, but the lack of anticipation in Lance’s throws into traffic cost him on deflected passes for interceptions and a pick six. The interception to end the game was the type of red zone thrown that fans have gotten accustomed to being completed with ease to the likes of Jake Ferguson or CeeDee Lamb, something the Cowboys will clearly still be counting on once these players are on the field.